Go to the City of Fort Worth data center survey page here and submit comments!

 Below is an example for you to use in making your comments.

"The Greater Fort Worth Sierra Club is providing these concerns and comments about the adverse impacts of data center development in Fort Worth and on its environment 
and communities. The City must proactively take steps to establish strong data center regulations. Regulations should be established to minimize the negative impact of data centers on Fort Worth’s air quality, water quality and quantity, natural habitat, land use, and noise. Furthermore, regulations should ensure that the health of our communities is not adversely impacted, that overburdened communities do not bear the brunt of high utility costs and other adverse impacts, and that environmental impacts are mitigated by the company, not the City or its citizens through tax dollars. Specific attention should be paid to disproportionate impacts on overburdened and underserved communities. The scheduled Open House is also insufficient. This type of development requires heavy public involvement, thus a committee made up of concerned citizens and experts should be formed to help draft any proposed regulations while a moratorium is in effect. 

First and foremost, the City must implement a one-year moratorium1 on all data center approvals and development until the city contracts for an in-depth study using the 
standardized Request for Proposal (RFP) evaluation matrix that scores suppliers objectively. The study the City conducted is inadequate and did not thoroughly assess 
and evaluate data center development. The proposed regulations that came out of the study fall extremely short on protecting our community. 

We are aware there are data centers in Fort Worth, but these are small compared to the many proposed hyper- or large-scale data centers being proposed and already zoned. Our primary concern is the hyperscale data centers. The recommendations below are based on the best available technologies. All of the technologies related to data centers, including IT equipment; energy; water; and HVAC system; are experiencing rapid advances that can lower the costs, energy and water use of data centers. 

1. Diesel generators lack air pollution controls and emit particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. Data centers use diesel generators to supply their backup 
   energy generations. As a result, Fort Worth should put in place strong requirements to significantly limit or prohibit data centers from relying on fossil fuel backup generation, including diesel backup generators. Fort Worth should require data centers to be equipped with clean backup sources of power, such as 
   battery storage and fuel cells using green hydrogen. The very substantial amount of electricity consumed by data centers could offset most or all of the greenhouse 
   gas savings from our energy efficiency programs and negate the greenhouse gas reductions stemming from renewable energy development. To the extent 
   possible, data centers should meet electricity demand through net-new renewable energy generation. Fort Worth should require data centers to 
   implement measures to support net-new renewable energy generation to minimize their impact on overall energy demand. Generators and hundreds, if not 
   thousands, of cooling fans, produce substantial and harmful noise. The noise persists 24/7 and the high-pitched whines and low-pitched vibrations can travel 
   for miles.  
2. Currently, most data centers use vast quantities of water which can put severe stress on local water systems. Allowed water usage should be based on 
   available capacity. Data centers must be connected to municipal water/sewer systems so that all water leaving the site is processed for any contaminants in 
   the water after it is used. Furthermore, gray water usage should be highly encouraged and/or incentivized. Future technologies that reduce/eliminate water 
   use should become the norm as they become available. Use of groundwater should be minimized and avoided to the extent possible. There are many 
   practices that data centers can employ to optimize airflow, reduce HVAC demands, and reduce water usage. Some practices increase the risk related to 
   data center function and should be discouraged. For example, the so-called “closed loop systems” are very dangerous since the system can produce PFAS 
   (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and glycol, which are both very harmful to the health of humans, fish and other wildlife. When the system is flushed into 
   rivers and streams, those contaminants can harm aquatic life downstream. Therefore, any water leaving the site should be required to be treated onsite 
   before leaving the site.
3.  As mentioned above, noise is a serious issue which causes adverse impacts. Noise reduction and abatement options that provide for safe noise levels should 
   be required. Allowable noise levels must be based on real-time limits, rather than averages over a particular time frame. 
4. Green space, agricultural, and various conservation areas should not be converted to data center use. 
5. To ensure proper compliance, a system of monitoring should be required for all data centers in Fort Worth that provides transparency and data access for all 
   citizens. Data center operators should provide funding and the needed access and instrumentation for all of the following: noise levels, water usage, energy 
   usage, air and water quality, and the greenhouse gas intensity of the system. Ideally this system would be operated by a third-party company or the City of Fort 
   Worth, and the data, including historical data, would be available to everyone. 
6. Data centers should not be provided with any tax incentives. The number of jobs created is minor when compared to the adverse impacts
7.  Pertaining to the proposed regulations, the proposed 250 ft setback from residential is insufficient; 250 ft is only the width of seven average city streets. 
   The proposed 300 ft setback for generators is also insufficient. The proposed vegetation buffer does nothing to mitigate air emissions from generators or block 
   the view. Additionally, it does not mitigate the heat island effect from these massive buildings. 

In conclusion, data centers do not add to our quality of life, they actually harm it. There are no real community benefits of data centers: they are large buildings that use 
massive amounts of water and electricity, use PFAS and other chemicals to keep the system cool, require thousands of acres of otherwise useful or natural land, pull 
massive amounts of power from the grid, create the heat island effect which heats our city causing long term climate effects, and remove massive amounts of vegetation and 
habitat while only employing minimal number of people. The Greater Fort Worth Sierra Club urges the City to further study the impacts of hyper-scale data centers while 
implementing a moratorium while an in-depth study is being conducted.  "